Shakespeare's Individualism

Why should we bother with Shakespeare today? A provocative perspective on the theme of individual freedom in Shakespeare's work.

Peter Holbrook (Author)

9781107630673, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 September 2013

260 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.39 kg

'The book's bravery in questioning the gains and contradictions of contemporary literary theory is bracing.' The Times Literary Supplement

Providing a provocative and original perspective on Shakespeare, Peter Holbrook argues that Shakespeare is an author friendly to such essentially modern and unruly notions as individuality, freedom, self-realization and authenticity. These expressive values vivify Shakespeare's own writing; they also form a continuous, and a central, part of the Shakespearean tradition. Engaging with the theme of the individual will in specific plays and poems, and examining a range of libertarian-minded scholarly and literary responses to Shakespeare over time, Shakespeare's Individualism advances the proposition that one of the key reasons for reading Shakespeare today is his commitment to individual liberty - even as we recognize that freedom is not just an indispensable ideal but also, potentially, a dangerous one. Engagingly written and jargon free, this book demonstrates that Shakespeare has important things to say about fundamental issues of human existence.

Introduction
Part I. Shakespeare, Hamlet, Selfhood: 1. Hamlet and failure
2. 'A room...at the back of the shop'
3. Egyptianism (our fascist future)
4. 'Become who you are!'
5. Hamlet and self-love
6. 'To thine own self be true'
7. Listening to ghosts
8. Shakespeare's self
Part II. Shakespeare and Evil: 9. 'Old lad, I am thine own': authenticity and Titus Andronicus
10. Evil and self-creation
11. Libertarian Shakespeare: Mill, Bradley
12. Shakespearean immoral individualism: Gide
13. Strange Shakespeare: Symons and others
14. Eliot's rejection of Shakespeare
15. Shakespearean immoralism: Antony and Cleopatra
16. Making oneself known: Montaigne and the Sonnets
Part III. Shakespeare and Self-Government: 17. Freedom and self-government: The Tempest
18. Calibanism
Conclusion: Shakespeare's 'beauteous freedom'.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Shakespeare plays [DDS], Literature & literary studies [D]